day 3

Good morning from Guatemala,

We are preparing our hearts this morning for our devotions with the Guatemalan team, before we head out to Amatitlan to do our first faith lessons and more home visits. We are asking for your prayers today that we are able to touch the hearts of the Guatemalan people.

Dios te Bendiga!

Randy

P.S.: Happy Anniversary to my dear and loving wife of 36 years! I love you!

Emotionally Drained.

Those are the two words that describe the team best today.

This morning we were able to see the new carpentry shop for George's
Boys (Only a Child Ministries). A true highlight for us all to see these
young men who have chosen a better life for themselves away from the
streets and into the shop producing the most beautiful wooden boxes. I
am sure that you have already heard from Connie on this one so I will
not embellish anymore on this subjectJ

From there we made a most somber visit to the volcanic- ashen cemetery.
First, we had to pay to even enter. In Guatemala, people are buried
above ground, so you could just imagine the elaborate buildings filled
with graves and flowers. Some of the buildings were approximately three
stories and Kevin referred to them almost "like Condos" for the
deceased. Spaces are rented for six years for the bodies. If the family
is unable to pay for the rental, the graves were then chiseled from the
cement and then disposed of in the adjacent dump. Just a frightening
sight to witness caskets just laying open on the hill over looking the
dump. It was heartbreaking.

And the dump- there are no words to describe this devastating place. Our
view from the cemetery was overlooking the dump. We thought that the dump in Coopersville smelled bad- not even close. The hardest part,
wasn't the overwhelmingly horrific smell, but the hundreds of people IN the dump. To many in the La Libertad village, this is the only way of
life. The dump is their livelihood where they collect things to sell for
recycling, and search for things to eat for their families. We were all
immediately changed by this experience. And forgive us when we get home,
but throwing something in the trash will probably haunt us for quite
some time.

After a delicious lunch of beans, rice and tortillas, we anxiously
ventured out to make home visits in La Libertad. Something about this
village- it is located on top of the old dump. People were actually
LIVING on top of the garbage. After attempting to get people to move
several times, the municipalities gave up and poured dirt and cement for
the people to build their homes on. And when I say "build" I mean that in an entirely different way in which we build in the States. The homes are literally made of tin pieces with a dirt floor. Although us "Gringos" stood out like a sore thumb, the people of the village were very kind and welcoming to us all. There were people selling fruits, veggies, etc… every few steps of the narrow path. It is so hard to put the experience into words.

The home visits were anything but ordinary. From visiting a young lady
who just recently lost her mother to a weary woman getting over
sickness, The experience was overwhelming. Our last visit was with a
family that had just buried a family member moments before. They were
chased out of the cemetery dodging bullets that were meant for a family
behind them. The very same cemetery we were visiting just hours before .
I will not get into any more detail about the home visits today, for I
am still trying to process them all.

All in all, it is amazing to see how content people are with what they
have and how exciting it is to be able to pray with these people.

Tomorrow, we begin our faith lessons in Amatitlan , approximately 45
minutes away. We will be sharing the story of Esther with nearly 75
children. How excitingJ

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Dios Te Bendiga! (God Bless)

Jamie

P.S. We want to start the world on fire…. Watch out!!!!

The Lord’s Day in Guatemala

Hi Everyone!

Today was a special day for all of us. Nineteen of us piled into a 15
passenger van and headed off to attend service at Manuel's church.
Manuel is one of the five Ministry Staff members whose picture is on the
Groundwork Guatemala display in our church Narthex. He is the one on
the right with the mustache. For those of you who haven't seen our
display board, you can see a picture of the Ministry Staff at the
following site:

http://www.groundworkguatemala.org/view/sponsor/missionaries

Wow! I have never attended a church service like this one before. The
Guatemalans know how to praise God with gusto! I was literally moved to
tears. Marilyn asked me what got me to crying, and all I could say was
that I didn't know. It was in Spanish, and I just didn't understand it.

I was asked by the team members if I would let you know that it has been
suggested for us to let go of our lives at home and concentrate on
getting to know the people of Guatemala during our brief visit with
them. This is why you don't see us posting anything on our Facebook
pages, and/or checking our email. (I expect my crops to wither in
Farmville on Facebook, but I've agreed to just "let it go.")

Since I'm in charge of communications, I'm allowed to post to the blog
and send updates to our Prayer Partners and others by special request.
I'm asking team members to feel free to add their thoughts to my
musings. Today Joyce is sharing some of her thoughts with you (see
below). Meanwhile, I'm heading off to bed Again, everyone else is
already sawing logs. I guess I'm the night owl in the group.

Blessings,
Connie

And now, let's hear it from Joyce:

Greetings from Guatemala! We arrived safe and sound with very few
problems. The weather is warm, wet, and warm again. My sweat glands are working very well!
Church this morning was wonderful. The message was from Joel 2: 12-19
(yes pastor we just can't forget you even if we try). God's spirit was
very evident as they sang, danced and swayed to the music. The band had
drums, coronets (3), base guitar, key board and 3 singers. Oh also 5
dancers. They all played very well and had us on our feet for over 45
minutes. I was given more kisses and hugs this morning than I have had
since the funeral and that is saying a lot if you know Rick and I. One
lady I thought wasn't going to let go.

I have completed one scarf and one more bottle holder so far this trip
that I will most likely leave here for Ginny and Kevin to give as gifts
at Christmas. All the candy we brought with us will also be given at
Christmas. Just got to keep my hands busy.

Gods love and mine, Will write more as the week progresses.

Joyce Rhodes.

Praise the Lord! We're here!

Yaaaaaay, Lord! We are finally here, safe and sound. We arrived in
Guatemala City a bit ahead of schedule, shortly after 6 am Sat. morning.
Surprisingly we got through customs fairly uneventful, considering all
the in kind offerings, craft and Bible study supplies we had packed in
duffel bags and our personal luggage. As the customs officials searched
through some of the bags, they just kind of rolled their eyes and made
comments among themselves with grins on their faces. Of course, none of
us really knows Spanish so we have no idea what they were saying about
this weird group of people coming to visit their country.

We were pretty travel weary when we arrived, as our flight out of
Chicago left about 3 am and we arrived in Guatemala City shortly after 6
am (their time, which is a couple hours ahead of us). None of us slept
much on the plane. However , I guess you can say we hit the ground
running, as several of us headed off to help on a project at the former
carpentry shop of Only A Child ministry. This ministry maintains a
shelter and carpentry shop for the street youth in Guatemala City. They
recently moved to a different location and are preparing the old
location to be leased by someone else. We painted walls alongside some
of the homeless young men and had a good time doing it. In spite of the
language barrier, we came away from there with the feeling that we had
made new friends. You can find out more about this ministry on the
following website: http://www.onlyachild.org/. Check it out. It's cool
what they are doing there.

That's all I'm going to write about today. Everyone has gone to bed, and
I'm feeling inclined to do the same really soon. It's been quite a day.
Thank you all for your prayers. Good night.

CLM

This is another test + a different email address for me.

Well, this is another test. Now I'm working with the netbook that I'm
taking on the trip. The keyboard is smaller, so I tend to make even more
typos than usual.

Also, I want everyone to know that I will be using a different email
address while traveling. If you get something from
grammacracker@gmail.com, it's me. You might want to do whatever you have
to do to keep it from going into your junk/trash folder.

If you want to send me email while I'm traveling, please send to the
grammacracker address.

Shelly, I haven't heard from you about whether or not you are receiving
my emails. I need lists of everybody's prayer partners. Do you have it?

Thanks,
Connie

More testing...

This time I’m testing the distribution of blog posts by email, and sending copies to others to share the information.  (This is my backup plan, in case for some reason it doesn't end up on the blog.)  I'm told the internet isn't always reliable down there, so I probably won't be able put the info directly in the blog. Posting by email may be the way to go.  I would appreciate it if those getting this email would reply, so I know that you got it.  Thanks.

Get ready, get set, let's GO!

This is a test message to see how I post to the blog via email. I just said a prayer that it works.

God's Blessings,
Connie